In a bid to reinvigorate Congress and to end its 27-year separation from authority in the politically important Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Assembly elections, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will begin the 2500 km-long Kisan Yatra from Deoria district today.
Before the commencement of the Yatra, Mr. Gandhi tweeted “My yatra from Deoria to Delhi starting September 6 is a campaign to secure the rights of the poor, farmers and labourers in government resources,”
6 Sept से शुरू देवरिया से दिल्ली की मेरी यात्रा – यह अभियान है गरीबों, किसानों और मजदूरों को सरकारी संसाधन में उनका हक दिलाने का
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) September 3, 2016
Various key features of Kisan Yatra:
Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Yatra is all set to commence on Tuesday. For the uninformed, it is the Congress’ new strategy wherein the Gandhi heir will interact with farmers sitting on cots.
However, the Congress, now positioned at the heart of the Uttar Pradesh elections, did not reach the conclusion to hold Khat Sabhas overnight.
From the selection of the UP’s Congress President, to the disclosure of its chief ministerial candidate Shiela Dikshit, to laying the reins of the UP elections in the hands of Congress’ VP Rahul Gandhi, all these judgments have been reached after months of planning by Prashant Kishor and his team.
1) Congress’s main motto- Farmers Weaknesses
The UP election course is managed by parties basing their feet on the vote bank of the Dalits, Muslims, backward classes the Savarna classes. However, a few other fundamental subjects emerged when Gandhi communicated with party workers, block heads and legislators during the Congress’ proceedings in April.
Hence, the Congress concluded that the UP elections will be contested on the basis of farmers’ interests.
2) Two stages of Yatra
The ‘Deoria to Dilli yatra‘, which will commence from Panchlari Kritpura village, will be headed by a door-to-door campaign of assembling ‘Kisan Mangpatras’ (charters of farmers demands), one-to-one communication with farmers through Khaat Sabhas, similar to that of PM Modi’s Chai pe Charcha.
The first stage will be from Deoria to Lucknow during September, then the Yatra will commence from Lucknow to Delhi at the end of September. The entire operation will conclude in the first week of October.
3) Reason behind Commencement of Yatra from Deoria
According to a research, 40% of UP’s sugar mills used to be established in the Deoria range of the state. However, by the end of the 90’s, as the Congress lost its dominance in UP, each of these plants was closed down.
Consequently, Deoria has now become the most viable area to begin amassing support from the farmers.
On the first two days of the Yatra, Rahul Gandhi will touch Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Sant Kabirnagar and Basti besides Deoria Region.He will be meeting 10 people in Deoria’s Pakladhi village as part of the Door-to-Door Mission.
The 10 participants will be provided a ‘Do Right by Promises of Forgiven Debt, Halved Electricity Rates, and MSP’ form, along with a kit. These 10 people will obtain 100 farmers to fill up the same form over the following 10 days.
Following this, these filled forms, that reveal the plight of farmers, will be forwarded to PM Narendra Modi under Gandhi’s leadership.
The party and Prashant Kishore team have made strategies for making the Congress leader’s 27 days yatra in UP, a great success. But the most appropriate question
whether this 27-day- Kisan Yatra of the Congress VP Rahul Gandhi will be effective to end the party’s 27-year expulsion from UP politics.